Long Branch Community Recreation Center: A Home Away from Home (VIDEO)

The Long Branch Community Recreation Center welcomes hundreds of people every week from morning to evening. A diverse mix of cultures and languages are represented by the members who treat the center like a home away from home. But the August 10 explosion and fire in Silver Spring tested Director Morris Buster and his staff’s ability to respond to a crisis. MyMCMedia’s Phyllis Armstrong has the story.

The Long Branch Community Recreational Center sheltered about 159 displaced people with help from the Red Cross and other nonprofit organizations. The center is open six days a week and offers after school programs for children, a mobile medical program for uninsured county residents and educational activities for adults. It also rents space for receptions and other special celebrations in addition to sponsoring recreational activities.

About Phyllis Armstrong

Phyllis Armstrong is a multimedia journalist with more than 30 years of experience in writing, reporting and broadcasting. She covered a wide range of news interests and issues as a general assignment reporter for WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C. from 1984 to 2009. Phyllis has continued to produce feature stories about local restaurants, culinary professionals and minority achievers for several online publications. Cooking, reading and Tai Chi are among are favorite things to do.

About MyMCMedia

Montgomery Community Media (MCM) is the only independent, nonprofit organization providing access to public media (public access television and broadband media) directly to Montgomery County's over one million residents as well as the resident non-profit organizations, associations and businesses.
Our purpose is to engage, educate and empower individuals and the community to express diverse viewpoints.